EA9, ZB2/

DL3OCH

Ceuta, Gibraltar

That was a very long drive. Distance from Weingarten to Gibraltar is 2300km (1450miles). We needed about one and a half day to go there. I am glad that Andreas joined me so that everybody could drive a while. 

Special thanks to Heinrich (DJ9YW) and Erich (OE9ERC) for supporting this DXpedition!!!!!!

Equipment:

HF:

RIG: TS-450S  

ANT: DK3 (mobile antenna)

SHF:

RIG: IC-706 + Transverter (by DJ9YW)

PWR: 83 Watt at dipole

ANT: 59 element, 19.7dB

February 5 on the way QRV from

JN 25 PX (France, F)

February 6 on the way QRV from

IM 86 AS (near Malaga, EA7)

February 7 until 11 QRV from

IM 75 HV (in Ceuta, EA9)

February 12 until 17 QRV from

IM 76 HC (in Gibraltar, ZB2, Point of Europe, Lighthouse GIB-001)

I had a lot of fun during the DXpeditions, although it was a very long drive of 2300 km from Weingarten to Gibraltar. Everything seemed to work fine until I tried to
make some EME QSOs on 9 Feb. I set up the antenna and tried to QSO DJ9YW. The "Gurardia Civil" (local police) showed up and wanted to see my permission. They took my passport and my German license and checked everything. I started to operate, but they became upset because I had to start my car engine to have enough power. They thought I was pulling
their leg when I pointed my antenna to the moon. It was very hard to explain. They did not speak English or German and my Spanish is just enough to order something in a restaurant. We did not have to wait long
for more police to come to see what was going on. After about 30 minutes there were 9 policemen. Fortunately I was able to complete with Heinrich. Then the boss arrived and I had to turn off everything and take down the antenna. Some of these guys wanted us to stop and some of them thought that it was ok. They nearly had a fistfight. The wrong group won, and I had to go to the police department. After a while, somebody who seemed to know something about radio came. He looked at my equipment and asked me about the frequencies that I used. 

They all came to the conclusion that I could continue. That was good, but the moon was
gone. I tried to rearrange the skeds and I was able to work OE9ERC and K2UYH the next day. The WX turned very bad and it was not possible to make any other skeds. I had to wait 2 extra days because the ferry was not running as a result of the storm. We eventually could make it to Gibraltar. There, somebody from the intelligence services showed up, but it was easy to explain what I was doing and he left. At times I had problems with bad QRM on the sked frequency, 

but was able to move some of the skeds around and completed 3 QSOs with DJ9YW, OE9XXI and OE9ERC. I was also briefly QRV on EME from EA7 (Spain) where I QSO'd DJ9YW, OE9XXI and OE9ERC. I made 5300 QSOs on HF and now have to fill out lots of QSL cards. More trips are planned for the future. Heinrich is developing a circular yagi that should give me 3 dB more gain. I hope to use this new antenna next summer. Special thanks goes to DJ9YW and OE9ERC for their support of the DXpeditions and to Andreas who assisted with the driving and setup.

QTH at the "Point Of Europe" in ZB2